PAPERBACKS

T-CELS & SYMPATHY: Monologues in the Age of AIDS by Michael Kearns (Heinemann: $10.95; 141 pp., paperback original). Actor-writer Kearns attempts to capture the breadth of the AIDS pandemic in this collection of monologues by a diverse assortment of characters: male and female, young and old, white and black and Hispanic. Although he creates a series of credible personas, the most vivid selections reflect Kearns' own experiences with drugs, sex, sobriety and love: "Breathing life into a disease which might kill me wasn't an option; my heart and soul and guts dictated I must. AIDS was the catalyst that led me to find my voice as an actor and a writer; the monologue became the vessel."